Wish You Weren't Here
by Miss Peg
Summary: Emily, Katie, Panda and Effy are off on holiday to Spain together...when Emily meets someone, what will she do about the man waiting for her at home?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Skins isn't mine...now let's get on with it...

Author Notes: I needed a bit of a break from intense drama, so hoping this one will be lighter than my recent fics. Enjoy.

**Wish You Weren't Here**

At five minutes to seven the plane touched down, only it wasn't seven, it was eight, according to European time. The cabin quickly overheated from the rush of passengers filing through overhead lockers and throwing books, toys and God knows what else into holdalls and rucksacks. Emily sat on an end seat. She didn't participate in the crazy rush for the door, there was simply no need. She'd arrived for a holiday, a chance to relax with her friends and not speed right through it. She cracked open her book and began to read, getting through half a paragraph before the passenger beside her asked her to 'hurry the fuck up'. She closed the book again and with a small eye roll, clambered to her feet in the smallest gap possible between the rows.

'What are you waiting for Ems?' her neighbour groaned again, her manner unexpectedly different for someone who looked her identical.

'I'm going as fast as I can; as soon as the doors have opened we'll have more space.'

She stayed calm, if only to ease her own panics about being squashed into a tiny space. She stared in Katie's direction, knew she had the same qualms. They stared at each other until the people surrounding her had gone, leaving a half empty aisle.

'Fucking move then,' Katie demanded in the very same moment that Emily stepped towards the line of passengers headed for the exit.

On the outside, the air was hot and sticky, suffocating in its intensity for a few short moments, until her airways had become used to the change in atmosphere.

'Way better than being at home,' Katie announced to a Spaniard who pointed across the tarmac towards the entrance to the airport. Emily doubted he really understood what she had said, instead had been hired to ferry passengers in the correct direction. It wasn't a difficult job with plane to passport control being the only route possible. When a passenger strayed off course and lit up a cigarette, the man started shouting at him in Spanish, holding his arms out towards the entrance.

'Fucking Spanish,' the man groaned, addressing him with an obnoxious, slow voice. 'Thought you people let us smoke anywhere.'

'(Something something comprende i dont understand in spanish)'

To Emily's dismay, the obnoxious man's family were waiting for him at passport control. A family of eight. Unluckily, somehow the passports had gone missing from their belongings, leading to an even longer wait behind them.

'Finally,' Katie snapped, handing over two passports to a young, Spanish man. 'I'm Katie, that's Emily.'

Emily rolled her eyes at her sister's attempt to flirt with him. They'd barely got off the plane and she was already on the pull. Emily smiled weakly at him before continuing along the corridor towards baggage claim.

'Over 'ere,' a voice shouted and several people pushed past them in order to reach for a suitcase. Emily stared at the back of the obnoxious smoker, waiting for him to move out of the way once more. He didn't. He stayed until half a dozen bags had been collected. If Katie hadn't been too busy chatting up his eldest son, their bags wouldn't have gone round four times. Finally the man disappeared, with his gaggle of geese following. Katie handed a mobile phone back to the tall, dark haired man. He wasn't even that attractive, by Katie's standards.

'Got our bags then?' she asked with a hand on her hip, her handbag hooked over her elbow.

'Think they're coming round now,' she mumbled, moving along the side of the empty baggage claim and retrieving one of their cases.

'Hurry up, yeah?' Katie demanded, searching the crowds. 'Panda and Effy are probably halfway to the hotel by now.'

'I doubt that since we're booked on the same coach,' Emily muttered, her voice trailing off as Katie had already pulled her suitcase from the conveyor belt and had set off across the large room, to the exit.

The coach was a welcomed rest from her sister's incessant talking and the constant demands. Luckily for Emily, Effy offered her the seat by the window on the opposite side to Katie. She complained, of course, but Effy had a way of persuading people about almost anything.

'And he looked at me with these amazing, dark eyes,' Katie gossiped to Pandora, who waited on every word she said, oohing and ahhing as often as possible.

Emily turned to face out the window, watching as the dry land passed by. A far cry from the green, lush scenes of the English countryside she was so used to. After a while she looked around the coach, trying to decide who would be at their hotel and who would get dropped off at the one after. The irritating man sat further along the coach with his son a few seats ahead, something Katie had yet to realise, she presumed. Behind them, a blonde rolled her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. She looked as far from relaxed as humanly possible with her long legs hanging out into the aisle. Her purple shirt signified her connection to the company they paid to pick them up. She looked as far away from the cheerful, happy photographs on the website as was humanly possible. Emily didn't think she looked very Spanish either, but her pale hair and pale skin could mean she was any number of nationalities.

The man in front of her smelled like cigarettes. Not the cheap, Spanish brands she'd been stuck buying, the proper English makes like (english cigarette make). If the bus wasn't so crammed full of happy people starting their holiday, she'd have moved. But she was stuck there behind him, craving a cigarette, which she couldn't have. On a journey she didn't really want to be on. Why had she moved to Spain in the first place? She couldn't remember anymore. Perhaps she'd taken a fall, banged her head and got amnesia. That would be the only reason she was sat there surrounded by B.O. and six screaming children. She'd counted them on the register, to be prepared. What the register didn't tell her was one child had an ear infection causing her to cry constantly, two of them were under four and one seemed to suffer from some hyperactivity disorder. She'd caught him six times already attempting to run down the bus.

The majority of passengers were families with children or teenagers, who didn't really want to be there but had been forced to join the family on their travels. A couple of older teenage girls sat on the seats to her right; they must have been related because they looked very similar. Yet both of them had headphones plugged to their ears and mobile phones being hammered by overly dressed nails. Once in a while the older of the two would glare at the other girl's phone and roll her eyes. Naomi did the same. Sometimes she wondered why they even hired her to do the job in the first place, she didn't like people and wasn't very good with customers. Then again, the other three applicants spoke broken Spanish. It wouldn't surprise her if her heritage was the only reason she was sat on the bus with the scent of sweat filling her nostrils.

The bus continued down the highway, jumping about every once in a while from the dusty, unkempt road. Trust her to end up on the bumpiest, hottest route. She'd preferred the idea of working in Barcelona in an artistic bar along Las Ramblas, but the firm had sent her to the south, to the one place she promised never to set foot. She wasn't a tourist after sun, sea and sangria; she was a political activist looking for culture and Spanish traditions.

Naomi let out a sigh of relief as the bus made the final trek up the most awkward road; she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, ignoring the panic-stricken look of passengers worrying about the windy, thin, bumpy passage. She'd seen it time and time again. They expected a beautiful hotel in the middle of a beautiful town; that was what they'd paid for. What they hadn't paid for was the somewhat dangerous street leading to said town and hotel. When the bus came to a stop a deadly silence filled the bus until her colleague began to instruct the passengers.

When the man shouted for their party, Katie jumped to her feet and waved a hand in his direction. He wasn't half bad, for a sweaty guy dressed in purple. She led them down the aisle where she accepted the complimentary vouchers and leaflets on their behalf and sent him a dashing smile. He smiled back, his eyes following her down the steps off the bus. She stood by the luggage that had been thrown across a dirty patio, waiting for the rest of the passengers. Emily had already taken up the task of finding their bags. She hadn't asked her to; she hated asking her for things. Usually she just waited because eventually, no matter what, Emily would do it for her anyway.

Eventually they were given their key-cards and an all access wristband. In orange. Whoever told them it was a good choice must have been hit in the head with a rock or something because orange was never popular, not as long as Katie could remember, that's for sure. Didn't they realise it clashed horribly with her brand new bikini? Didn't think it through, did they?

Once Emily had unlocked their hotel room and dropped Katie's suitcase on the floor – she should be more careful, bitch – Katie got changed and requested they go for a drink. They had paid for all inclusive after all, so they were going to get what they paid for. She left Emily still muttering about something as she knocked up Effy and Pandora who shared the room next door.

The bar was quiet, so quiet that Effy had to count the number of people sat on the patio by the pool in order to focus her attention away from the constant drumming in her mind. She ordered and perched on a bar stool. Emily and Pandora had opted to stay in their rooms. Katie talked her ear off to her left about how she hoped Emily wouldn't be a party pooper, Effy switched off when the large family that had been on the plane and the coach arrived in the bar. Katie's attention turned from Effy and onto a tall, reasonably handsome young man. He wasn't Katie's type, but he'd obviously caught her eye. Katie didn't sleep around, she didn't act like she didn't, but Effy knew there was always more to it than sex.

Then again, the Katie she knew had disappeared somewhat since she broke up with Danny the footballer. He was a dick and they all knew it, now Katie did too. But it shook her confidence when she couldn't find someone else to date straight after. Effy watched the young man watching Katie, who watched him right back. There was chemistry, there was eye-flirting, there was a definite chance of something going on.

'He's fucking hot,' Katie muttered, sipping on her cocktail in a seductive way, her body angled in the guy's direction and her breasts hanging out.

Effy's attention was drawn away from the hopefully-happy couple to the purple shirted coach staff that entered the bar. The blonde looked considerably more cheerful away from the bus and with an orangey cocktail in her hands. She downed the first one and accepted a second without another glance. In between Katie's eye-sex and the blonde's surprising smile, Effy found herself wondering what the next couple of weeks would bring. As she focused back on Katie talking to her, she took another glance back at the coach staff. There was something about them, which made Effy wonder, if perhaps they would come to meet more than once that summer.

**Any chance of a review?**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Skins isn't mine...now let's get on with it...

Author Notes: I've been very busy, but life is starting to ease up a bit, so I'm hoping I can put all of my focus back into writing soon.

**Wish You Weren't Here**

Chapter Two

The view from the hotel room reached towards the sea in the distance on the left, whilst below, they were in the perfect position to watch the evening entertainment from their balcony. The pool lay out in front with a terrace full of drinkers directly below. The speed that Katie dashed out of the room made Emily suspect she'd discovered the obnoxious smoker's offspring; her suspicions were then confirmed by the three people sat at the far end of the terrace. Effy sat staring intently, as she usually did, probably analysing some couple in love, mostly ignoring - though probably still processing - everything that went on beside her. Katie flirted; her eyes focused on the young man, her chin resting on her hand a little too close for comfort. The obnoxious smoker's child flapped his eyelashes and his toothy grin made their mutual flirting appear somewhat acceptable.

Emily let out a sigh and fumbled with her mobile phone. She regretted never moving to a contract where she imagined there would be an option to call Craig for half the price it would cost her now. Instead she sent a brief message about the arrival and Katie's attempts to woo her first holiday romance. She longed to hear his voice, to feel the familiarity she lacked in a strange place. Even if she didn't love him the way he loved her, he was still her best friend.

'Whatchu doing Emilypoo?' Pandora bounced onto the balcony in a flurry of pink and girly patterns, her scent something akin to a children's perfume playset. Emily smiled, if only to stop her from suspecting that she wasn't as happy as everyone expected her to be. She was engaged; she was supposed to be over the moon, unable to survive without her husband to be. Instead she missed him only by way of the company she had grown so accustomed to.

'Thinking,' she finally answered, putting on her biggest smile until Pandora's worried eyes returned to their usual gleeful look.

'Bet you're missing your Craigy,' she replied. 'I miss my Tommo a real lot. I never thought love could be so flipping hard, but it's whizzer, ain't it Em? Must be harder for you being engaged, I still can't quite believe it. We're only kids, well twenty-three, but it seems so young. Though my mum made monkey with my dad when she was twenty-two, so it's not that different, but still, you're getting married. It's bonkers.'

When Emily turned her attention back to the terrace, Katie and the young man had vanished, replaced by some older gentleman who Effy listened to with feigned attention. Emily searched the rest of the terrace and hoped that her sister was merely buying more drinks. The lock of the door clicking and the creak of the hinges as it swung open, instead, confirmed her less conscious suspicions.

'Emsy?' Katie called out, appearing in the open doorway. She had that look in her eye that told Emily to piss off.

'We'll go save Effy from boredom,' Emily muttered with a smile on her face. She pulled Pandora's hand and they left the room at the exact moment Katie's tongue was dancing in the mouth of the near stranger, his shirt already discarded across the bedroom floor.

The bar was crowded and the man beside Effy smelled of pipe smoke. She liked the smell; it reminded her of one of her grandfathers who smoked a pipe regularly when she was a child. She remembered sitting on the sofa between her mother and Tony. That scent lingering in the air long after they'd arrived. She drifted off, her attention stolen from the conversation in front of her, until, for one of the only times in her life, she didn't actually know what was going on.

'Can I buy you drink?' the man asked in a Spanish accent and she nodded her head. He suggested a couple of options and she stated her preference before he left her alone.

'Finally,' Pandora called out, stealing his seat and putting a very orange, very decorative glass on the table in front of them. 'Thought he'd never leave, don't tell me you'd make monkey with him Eff, he's old enough to be your grandpa.'

'He just sat down,' she muttered in her usual, calm voice.

Pandora started babbling then about how Katie was upstairs with 'some boy' and even though she listened, she also allowed her attention to be drawn away from the table. That blonde from the bus was sat opposite her colleague looking thoroughly bored. Eventually Emily turned around, following her gaze until the both of them were watching her. Then she caught their eye and the both of them returned to Panda's complaint about Emily having to leave the room just so that Katie could have sex.

'I know,' Effy agreed, noticing Emily's gaze return to the table behind them.

The bar was full of tourists, as it was every night. Slimy, smelly, drunken men trying to sleep with her all because she had a pair of tits. She wasn't fond of the locals, but she cared even less for the people she spent the last few months trying to get away from. If she wanted English men slobbering all over her, she would have stayed in England. Instead she'd moved to Spain with the intention of being as far away from the majority of the English population as possible. She doubted she would ever stop thinking about how much she loathed the location of her job. She didn't mind tourists who sat quietly having a drink and talking with their friends, or those who spent their holiday walking up monuments and driving around. Anything but roasting by the sea. She was sure many of them were lovely people, but she didn't move to Spain to spend her night having her ear chewed off about the latest Prime Minister or someone's financial issues. That was, until her eyes landed on the lonely red head by the bar. She looked lost, lonely and altogether very British. Her skin looked like it had seen very little sun in months and her eyes followed the crowds as they danced, in that coy way she'd only seen once, in the girl she kissed in middle school. Yes, she'd kissed a girl. Yes, that meant she was gay, not that kissing someone at fourteen should ever hold labels unless you want them too. She stared at her, watched as her mouth wrapped around the tiny straw, followed by her finger to keep it steady. Her eyes looked across at her, stared a moment longer than anyone could accept as normal, until her eyebrows furrowed and her pupils grew wide. She'd spotted her, somehow she _knew_. Naomi could tell, not that she knew the woman, couldn't even remember the young girls name, from way back when. But she was definitely her, those eyes bugged in the same surprised way then faltered with doubt and sorrow, a look of regret that Naomi knew all too well. Naomi closed her eyes and turned away, couldn't handle the depth of emotion housed in her face. Not now, not there. She took a deep breath and downed her drink, a bit of Dutch courage before allowing her eyes to open once more. When she glanced back towards the bar, the red head had gone.

Naomi Fucking Campbell. Naomi Fucking Campbell was there, on _her_ holiday, in clear view. She'd seen her before, the same blonde haired woman who sat a few rows ahead on the airport bus and who sat in the bar earlier that day. It couldn't be, that's what she'd told herself. There was just no way that the only person who could change her life, would be there, hundreds of miles away from home. What were the chances?

'Fuck, fuck, fuck,' Emily cried out loudly towards the sea, allowing her cries to be swallowed up by the gentle lull of the water and the vast of sand surrounding her as she sunk to her knees. Nobody even knew who Naomi was, not least Katie. She'd never told anyone what happened and before she could even process what that kiss, that fateful moment, had meant for her sexuality, school had finished. She and Katie were shipped off for a summer in Malaga, Liverpool and Scotland with various family members. Of course the next year was at a new school where Naomi Campbell was a distant memory. None of that stopped her finding her first relationship, with a girl, well, her first thing that lasted all of a month. By her final year of high school she'd come out to her family, not that any of them believed her.

'It's just a phase Rob, don't entertain her silly little crush,' her mother insisted upon at every available opportunity.

There she sat, with a gentle breeze stroking her cheeks as she contemplated the implications of her past landing right in front of her, miles from home. She closed her eyes and tried to picture herself with Craig, her fiancé, the 'love of her life'. Walking down the aisle to marry him, standing in front of him, having him lift the veil of her dress, only to find Naomi's blue eyes staring back at her.

**Reviews are welcomed :)**


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